When, How and Why?

The When, How and Why about our very existence. This is how I would grade the two general schools of thought:

Theists Atheists/ScienceWhen Wrong Evidence and Much DiscoveryHow Wrong Evidence and Much DiscoveryWhy God's Will No Explanation

Do you think science or atheism does, can and/or will ever answer Why? Must there even be a "reason" for the Universe.I do not think "to do good" is a necessarily a valid answer for atheists; why do good? It may be a valid answer for a theist. I feel the "why" questions undermines atheism because religion offers an (albeit, a ridiculous) answer. What are your thoughts on this matter?

Replies to This Discussion

As others have discussed, there doesn't seem to be a long term answer to the Why question. I have a short term answer for my own actions though. I have and am raising children without the easy guidance that a bible provides, so I thought long and hard about what my principles were going to be, both for myself and my children.

I and my mate try to model good behavior for our kids. Why, because I want them to have good lives, and we believe that this will help them to become better citizens and make the world a better place. This is my Why, which I consider to be superior to a theists why because I consciously have to make this decision every day, every moment, without someone real or imagined looking over my shoulder.

These decisions inform my every move, and sometimes makes me kinda boring, and occasionally straight-laced. I have no absolution to look forward to, no easy out of "God made me do it". My actions, writings, and spoken thoughts stand for me to the outside world. As an atheist, I have to take full responsibility for everything I have control over. Can a theist say that?

Before I had kids, I acted this way as well, although more as a means of survival than anything else.

One last thing, I visited a church service a few years ago, and I did learn something there about forgiving myself. I don't have any real problem forgiving others, but forgiving myself was a real challenge. Built into much scripture is a lot of absolution for heinous crimes. I don't need that, but I appreciated the reminder.

Not a nuisance at all - it wasn't until I was in my twenties that I realised everyone else didn't see colours for words, letters and numbers too. Mental arithmetic and remembering names are both much easier when you have a colour clue.

Although I have been known to say "what's that place in Italy that starts with a D. Oh yes, Venice!", and received some funny looks. But to me, both D and V are dark blue, although V is a little bit softer.

Curious - any idea how prevalent that is among the world's population?

Clearly you've spent your life with it, so it's normal for you, but if I were to suddenly go from here to there, I suspect I would need to make a great many adjustments in my thought processes. Fascinating --

One thing I noticed after working for several years with computer projective geometry and mapping, I got better with 3d visualizations.

As I got older, my dreams are now colored, and I have the occasional dream where I get to notice I am having a dream while in the dream state.

I was able to catch the transition point from dreaming and waking the other night once some part of me noticed a change in the visual field/minds eye just before I woke up. I was rather shocked, and weirded out.

Some of my dream content looks more like TV transmissions at times, with vivid colors, and text. I can't seem to tune yet! LOL

Some of my dreams have a sort of mimsy to them. One night I dreamed that wife and I were riding a bicycle without wheels, and I wanted to show off my new successful flying skill. Wife and I like our flying dreams, sadly we are never sharing the same dream while aware of each other. LOL